Late Night Live — Full program podcast

After President Lula de Silva's comeback election victory in Brazil, his defeated opponent Flavio Bolsonaro vanished from the country. What now lies ahead for the giant South American nation, under the 81 year-old Lula? Plus, a new biography explores the complexities of Geoffrey Bardon, the white Australian school teacher who became a key figure in the contemporary Indigenous art movement of the 1970s, while battling his own demons. 

Guests: 

• Deborah Barros Leal Farias, Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales
• Kitty Hauser, author of 'Art Mania: Geoffrey Bardon and the Painting Men of Papunya', Giromondo Press

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Correspondent Irris Makler joins Late Night Live as the votes are tallied after Israel's election - with a deadlock looking increasingly likely. Plus the story behind the European lawyers, who fled to Australia after World War Two.

Guests:

• Irris Makler, veteran Middle East Correspondent
• Katherine Biber, historian and Professor of Law, University of Technology, Sydney

Get in touch:

We'd love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]

UK journalist Ian Dunt previews PM Andy Burnham's first budget, plus a new book analyses published and unpublished polling data to understand how and why the 2023 Voice to Parliament referendum failed to win the majority support of the Australian public. 

Guests:

• Ian Dunt, columnist for i-news, co-host of Origin Story podcast
• Professor Murray Goot, Macquarie University and Professor Emeritus Tim Rowse, Western Sydney University, co-authors 'The Year Our Voice Broke' (2026)

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Anna Henderson discusses the ongoing debate over the connection between the tone of political rhetoric and real world acts of violence, since the attack on Independent MP Helen Haines, plus whether the government's use of algorithms in aged care assessments shows it has learned the lessons of Robodebt. France’s debt is mounting, its governments are paralysed and public anger is spilling into the streets. As the political centre falters, far-right leader Marine Le Pen is waiting to capitalise. Plus, bones are an extraordinary record of human life, holding clues to our histories, our societies and the ways we die. From forensic science to Europe’s vast ossuaries, what can the dead tell us about the living?

Guests:

• Anna Henderson, Chief Political Correspondent, SBS
• James Waterhouse, BBC Paris Correspondent
• Carla Valentine, author, The Language of Bones

Correspondent Irris Makler joins Late Night Live from Israel, days away from the country's elections. Plus, Washington journalist Susan Page details Queen Elizabeth II's relationship with 13 US presidents, from Truman to Trump. 

Guests:

• Irris Makler, journalist and former Jerusalem correspondent, France24
• Susan Page, Washington, D.C. bureau chief for USA Today, author of 'The Queen and Her Presidents'

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Veteran Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad contemplates Iraq's 'impossible predicament' in the wake of the final withdrawal of remaining US personnel and amid ongoing corruption battles. Plus Indonesian writer Tari Lang recalls Indonesia's bloody 1965 coup, and growing up in the same neighbourhood as dictator Suharto. 

Guests:

• Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, journalist for The Guardian
• Tari Lang, author 'My neighbour, the dictator: Coming of age in the shadow of Indonesia's 1965 coup'

Bruce Shapiro counts down to the US midterm elections. Dr Rupa Nara of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) returns from a recent mission to the epicentre of the Ebola crisis. Plus, are researchers finally decoding the mysterious Inca 'language' of knotted strings? 

Guests:

• Bruce Shapiro, contributing editor for The Nation, Executive Director for the Global Centre of Journalism and Trauma
• Dr Rupa Nara, paediatrician, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)
• Professor Sabine Hyland, anthropologist from the University of St Andrews

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Anna Henderson on the attack on Independent MP for Indi, Helen Haines. Plus tensions between the PM and Treasurer Jim Chalmers over credit card payments, and why the Nationals won't support the EU trade agreement. Also on the show, India's youth movement, the Cockroach Janta Party, is testing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's grip on power. Plus hordes of yabbies are trashing rivers in southern Africa. 

Guests: 

• Anna Henderson, chief political correspondent, SBS
• Maya Tudor, Professor of Politics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
• Dr Rachael King, specialist in freshwater and marine invertebrates, Head of Research, SA Museum

A new documentary looks back at the career of fiercely independent journalist and host of Democracy Now ! Amy Goodman and why she thinks independent media and dissent are what will save us from despots. Plus another documentary looks back at the fight against the Hindmarsh Island bridge in South Australia, the place where Ngarrindjeri women conducted sacred women's business and refused to back down on their right to keep it secret. 

Guests: 

• Tracey Rigney, writer/director KUMARANGK: Sacred Women’s Business and Steve Kenny, one the lawyers who represented the Ngarrindjeri people
• Amy Goodman, journalist, co-host of Democracy Now!  Star of the new documentary film Steal this story, Please!

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Australia's unique alpine eucalypt is starting to die out. The High Country may never be the same again, a new book argues. And longstanding New Yorker magazine writer Susan Orlean, author of 'The Orchid Thief' and 'The Library Book', on her fascination with the stories of people who are not famous or powerful.

Guests: 

• Ant Sharwood and Anna Langford, co-authors of 'The last snow gum' (Hachette)
• Susan Orlean, on a speaking tour of Australia. Her latest book is 'Joyride: a memoir'